


Living With

by Evil_Little_Dog



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Alternate Ending, Community: comment_fic, Gen, Gore, Horror, Season/Series 05
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-23
Updated: 2012-08-23
Packaged: 2017-11-12 17:32:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/493870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evil_Little_Dog/pseuds/Evil_Little_Dog
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Summary:  Buffy survived the fall in 'The Gift'.  Oops.<br/>Disclaimer:  Joss and I are like besties!...not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Living With

Jolts of electricity ran through her body and Buffy thought for a second, just a second, she saw – 

X X X

Sobbing, Dawn hugged her, burying her face in Buffy’s hair. “You’re alive,” she cried. 

She wanted to cry, too, but it was more for the sensation of broken glass shattering further, and digging into her body. But Dawn. Dawn. 

“You’re alive, you’re alive.” 

Yes. That was what this was. Living.

X X X

Buffy watched the birds outside the window, flying. She remembered how it felt, running. Leaping off the tower. Her body suspended in air, the buffet of the wind around her. 

The birds had it lucky. They controlled where they landed.

X X X

She crouched over a tombstone, watching the fresh earth for some sort of movement. Her gut ached and throbbed, and if she’d eaten anything, she would’ve vomited it up. Instead, her head is full of words and voices and emotions that don’t make sense. Willow asking her what’s wrong, and Xander telling her she’s different, and Dawn blinking at her and stepping out of the way. 

Tara, Tara was the only one who watched her. 

Buffy thought she needed to stop that. 

X X X

It was easy, too easy, to ask Tara to meet with her. She had put a plea into her voice, one she didn’t feel, to coax wary Tara out of her shell. Willow made excuses and Xander wasn’t clever enough, and Dawn, well, she’d done everything for Dawn, even if they weren’t even really sisters, so she couldn’t, not to Dawn. 

But Tara. 

“Buffy?” Her voice was soft and tentative, and made Buffy’s incisors _itch_. 

She wondered if this was how vampires felt. “Tara. Over here.” 

X X X

Dawn screamed and screamed when she found Tara, and Buffy crouched over her. The blood had lapped up over her clothes, and coated the floor. The knife was slick in Buffy’s hands. She thought she’d be done before Dawn came home, but Tara’d fought back, a lot harder than Buffy had expected. Of course, she’d been fighting for her life. Buffy remembered how that felt. Maybe. 

But now, she needed to stop the screaming, and Buffy got to her feet, staring at the girl. With the heat of the blood coating her hands, Buffy thought, “Yes, _this_ is living.”

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy + Scoobies, the magic/fall doesn't kill Buffy in 'The Gift' but she is irrevocably changed by it.


End file.
